One thing that separates humans from animals is our ability to be creative, to use our imagination to solve problems in unique and unexpected ways. It’s thanks to our imagination that we made our way to the top of the food chain, founding civilizations and building cities, as well as coming up with all kinds of useful inventions and artistic achievements to enhance and enrich our lives over the years.
Imagination can be an amazing thing, creating mind-blowing art and tackling huge issues to change the world as we know it. But we can also use our imagination in smaller, day-to-day ways to solve little problems or make things easier for ourselves, like fixing a shower with a simple water bottle or turning trash into art. Here are some amazing, inspiring, and often hilarious ways in which people have gotten creative!
1) A Balcony For Man’s Best Friend
Dogs love to have a backyard to run around in, but this one lives in an apartment. His owner still wanted to give the big ball of fluff a little bit of ‘outdoor space’, so he made a mini balcony, just for the pup!
2) Making The Best Of A Blizzard
When they got snowed in, these guys got creative! They turned the huge pile of snow and ice outside their door into a natural refrigerator to chill their beers and other booze.
3) An Apartment With A Private Pool
Plenty of people dream of owning their own pool someday, but we can’t all have millionaire mansions. However, as this photo proves, you can always find ways to bring your dreams to life if you’re willing to get creative!
4) The Festive Spirit
With the holiday season approaching, this guy decided to get in the festive spirit in the most amusing way, turning his actual hair into a Christmas tree that follows him wherever he goes, spreading good will and holiday cheer to all.
5) Simply Inspiring
This one is quite extraordinary! This African school can’t afford PCs and tablets for the students, but the teacher still wanted to help them learn how computers work, so he drew a picture perfect word processor screen on the chalkboard.
6) The Purrfect Phone Stand
Cats spend most of the day sitting around and napping, so why not put them to good use by turning your furry feline friend into a fluffy phone stand?
7) When You’re Out Of Options…
This just shows how resourceful people can be! When we find ourselves in tricky situations, we always seem to find a way to improvise and make some kind of solution out of unlikely items.
8) Pirate Cow
So this cow had an issue with her eye and the vet said that it needed to be covered up and given time to heal. You can’t exactly buy an official ‘cow eyepatch’, so the owners improvised!
9) That’ll Do
Again, we see how hilariously resourceful some people can be! The door bell broke down, so they made their own with nothing but a bottle and some rocks.
10) Solving Two Of The World’s Biggest Dilemmas At The Same Time
This is such a smart way of solving the litter issue, reducing the number of cigarette butts tossed all over the streets, while also giving people a fun way to share their views on one of the biggest sci-fi questions of all.
11) A Simple Crack Turns Into So Much More
For street artists, anything can feel like a canvas. A simple crack in the wall can turn into a comic book scene, with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man swinging off to his next adventure.
12) A Homemade Hot Tub
We’re not sure how safe this is, but it sure is an innovative way for someone to enjoy their own private hot tub without paying hundreds of dollars for the privilege!
13) This Is How He ‘Plays Outside’
This kid’s mom told him to go play outside and get some fresh air, so he simply moved his games console and TV out onto the lawn and carried on gaming.
14) A Picnic On The Lake
This looks so much fun! Everyone wants to enjoy a nice picnic out on the lake, and if you can’t afford a fancy yacht, all you need to do is make your own floating picnic table.
15) Creative Marketing
With more and more bars opening up all the time, they have to get creative in order to bring people inside. This hilarious sign was spotted at an Icelandic bar, encouraging people to come inside for ‘free beer’ and ‘topless bartenders’, along with a little bit of ‘false advertising’.
16) A Simplified Remote
An elderly woman was always struggling with all the buttons on her TV remote and never knew which one to press, so her son decided to simplify the whole thing for her, highlighting the only two buttons she ever needs.
17) A Trash Army
German artist Ha Schult has continuously blown the world away with his incredibly imaginative art, turning simple garbage into amazing structures!
18) Is There Anything Duct Tape Can’t Do?
Whenever something goes wrong, we reach for the duct tape! It’s the perfect solution for almost any issue in life, and you can even apparently make door handles out of it.
19) Sounds Good
Here’s another bar getting creative with its marketing, joking about a whiskey ‘soup of the day’. We especially love the phrase ‘H20 Croutons’ instead of ‘Ice Cubes’.
20) The Tastiest Family Tree
If only all schools used this super inventive and scrumptious method for teaching kids about genetics and family trees! It’s actually really clever, showing how different combinations can result in different genetic blends from one generation to the next, all expressed through the medium of gummy bears.
21) Quick Thinking
Someone found themselves stuck at the airport when the toilet door was broken and wouldn’t stay shut. Thinking quickly, they took off their sweater and used it as a makeshift lock. Genius!
22) Colorful Cracks
It’s never fun when you spend hundreds of dollars on a fancy smartphone and then one little accident causes the whole thing to crack. Instead of buying a replacement or being forced to look at ugly, unsightly cracks each day, this person used colorful markers to turn their ‘happy little accident’ into a work of art.
23) How Fancy
Clearly, the person responsible for this elegant cubicle wanted to make the best of a bad situation. They might not have their own office, but they still want to enjoy a little sophistication while working each day.
24) Always Watching
The kids in this house are big Lord of the Rings fans and wanted to try something different for Christmas. Instead of a boring old angel sitting on top of the tree like everyone else, they made their own Eye of Sauron.
25) Amazing Art In Unlikely Locations
Here’s another example of what artists can do when they put their imagination to work in unexpected places! Even a broken down building like this can be turned into something fantastic when someone creative passes by.
26) When You Really Need Some Slippers
We don’t know why you’d ever be so desperate for slippers that you need to resort to something like this, but hey, at least it shows another unexpected use for old water bottles.
27) Space-Saving Recycling
This innovative recycling solution was spotted in a South Korean cafe. Instead of letting the bins fill up with all those plastic and paper cups, the cafe installed these slim holders to save space and encourage people to recycle.
28) Chill Out
Why spend thousands on a brand new car with all its fancy features and air conditioning when you can just make your own A/C like this? Okay, it looks pretty dumb, but it’s still impressive that someone would go to so much trouble.
29) The Perfect Motivation
This guy clearly needed a little extra motivation to make it to the end of the marathon, so he stuck a beer can on the end of a pole tied to his hat. He’ll catch up to it eventually…
30) A Cartoon Cafe
Here’s another cafe straight from South Korea. The whole place has been decorated in black and white to look just like a cartoon or sketchbook brought to life!
31) A Life-Saving Solution
Here’s a super smart product that could save lives! This coat has been made with a reflective material that glows bright under the light, perfect for people walking or cycling at night. It’s like wearing a high visibility jacket but way more stylish.
32) Making A Difference
The folks behind these boxes actually made use of scraps of wood left over from Hurricane Katrina, showing that even in moments of tragedy and sadness, our imagination and creativity can still help to bring some light out of dark situations.
33) Making The Most Of Limited Space
At first glance, you’d never think that anyone could fit a washing machine in such a small bathroom, but where there’s a will, there’s a way!
34) Recycling In Action
This guy’s TV broke down, but instead of just tossing it out, he decided to turn it into a coffee table!
35) He’s Got His Eye On You
Someone spotted this hilarious poster in the bathroom at a house party. It’s a funny way of discouraging people from doing drugs, as nobody would want to do anything bad while Jesus is watching!
36) Better Than A Breathalyzer
Even with all the terrible stories about drinking and driving, it’s still a major problem that needs to be solved. This bar installed a very clever solution to test how drunk people are – they put lots of different door handles on the entrance, and only one of them actually works.
37) Trash To Treasure
We’ve seen a few images of people re-using bits of trash or even turning it into amazing art, and here’s another stunning example of that! British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster made a mound of trash look like a touching scene by simply positioning it at just the right angles and shining some light onto the pile.
38) Ultimate Power
Here’s one for all the comic fans! Someone made this clever magnetic Magneto statue. The famous X-Men villain seems to be magically holding all the paper clips in place with his superpowers.
39) Very Resourceful
When the gas went out in this house, the family got creative, using an electric iron to cook some meat. When people are hungry, they’ll do anything!
40) I See You
The funny folks in this apartment wanted their door to stand out from the crowd, so they made a creative little skull to peek out around their peephole.
41) Your Very Own Chopper
Have you always wanted to own your own helicopter? Well all you need to do is draw one above your ceiling fan.
42) A Very Creative Cosplayer
This cosplayer clearly couldn’t decide which of Johnny Depp’s many characters to dress up as, so he decided to do all of them! We can see elements of Captain Jack Sparrow, Edward Scissorhands, Raoul Duke, Sweeney Todd, and others.
43) Get It?
These bar owners have dwarfism, and decided to use that as a gimmick for their business, making their own ‘Mini Bar’ and serving tiny drinks for customers.
44) Broken Shower? No Problem!
People can get really creative when faced with common household problems. When this person’s showerhead broke, they grabbed a bottle, stabbed a few holes in the bottom, and made their own.
45) Spot The Difference
This is cute and creative too! The owners of this home must really love their VW van as they decorated their mailbox to look just like it.
46) A Fashion Statement
When this guy hurt his leg and needed a cane to get around, he still saw the funny side! He made a mini set of jeans and a Converse shoe to dress it up and match his outfit.
47) The Best Way To Save
Saving money is hard, but these folks have got the right idea. They made lots of little labeled envelopes with their dream vacations written on the side to encourage them to save up.
48) Fixing The Hole
This colorful little fix is the work of Jan Vormann, an artist who travels across Europe using Legos to ‘repair’ holes and cracks in random city streets.
49) Nice!
The tap was too low to fill this container, but with a little imagination, the problem is solved by simply turning it upside down.
50) Just Having A Little Fun
Wow! Imaginative people can get creative in even the smallest of spaces! Someone turned a tiny Altoids box into a mini pool table.
51) A Quick Fix
We don’t recommend trying this one at home, but it’s funny to see how this car owner reacted when their light got smashed. They simply stuck a basketball in the hole and covered it up with film, hoping that nobody would notice.
52) No Coin? No Worries!
This person forgot to bring a coin along for the shopping cart, but they used their brain and stuck a key in there instead. This clever little life hack really does work, but you have to be extra careful to not leave the key in there when you go home.
53) The Perfect Match
It’s amazing how well these two faces match up with Seth Rogen and James Franco! They even nailed the hairstyle!
54) You Might Need A Little More Than That
Nobody actually took the time to install a real fire extinguisher under this sign, so someone else got creative and hung a bottle of water there. Let’s hope there’s never an actual fire!
55) Getting Comfortable
When this guy got to the college library and found all the seats were taken, he used his imagination and set up a cozy little hammock to do his homework in style.
56) An Affordable Speaker System
Sure, you can spend big bucks on some fancy speaker system or headphones for your phone. Or you can do it all for free with a couple of old milk cartons.
57) When You’ll Do Anything To Save A Few Bucks
People’s creativity really comes out when they’re trying to save some cash. This guy really didn’t want to waste money on boring socks when his old pair developed a few holes, so he came up with this rather unique solution.
58) Thinking Outside The Box
We can’t all afford a million different kitchen appliances, and sometimes we have to improvise! It’s amazing how much you can cook in a coffee-maker.
59) Genius
This guy’s girlfriend bought her razor heads along on a trip but forgot to bring the actual razor itself. But with a simple fork, a bit of string, and a dose of imagination, he solved the problem! This guy might actually be a real-life MacGyver.
60) The Ultimate Grill Solution
Okay, it’s a little redneck-y, but this is a very efficient way to make a whole lot of hot dogs in a very short amount of time.
Whether they’re making amazing art or just finding a quick way to cook some tasty food, these folks demonstrated the incredible power of imagination! There really are no limits to what we can do when we put our minds to work. Which was your favorite example from the list? Be sure to share it around with family and friends and inspire them to get creative the next time they’re faced with a problem.